Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies are a staple for everyones Christmastime repertoire, so simple yet so delicious it’s hard to go without them! Last year I made really big cookies that were super thin and crisp just to switch things up a little bit, but this year I’m back to old faithful! My baby cousins and my 3 year old niece are coming up this weekend to take a trip to the Children’s Museum in Rochester so I thought it would be fun to package a few of the cookies as presents so I’ll include that tutorial after the cookies! This recipe makes a little over 3 dozen and is very easily doubled if you need more. I’ve also added a tab at the top of the page where all of my Christmas Cookies recipes will be to help you guys find them all throughout the season!

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper. Whisk 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp salt in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer (you can read all about my mixer here), cream 1 cup granulated sugar with 2 sticks softened unsalted butter on medium high speed for about 4 minutes. Then add in 2 large eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in 2 tsp pure vanilla extra and then lower the speed. Add in the flour mixture a little at a time and beat until just combined. Add a 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips right into the mixer or fold them in by hand.

I wanted to go for quantity here and not size so I used a small stainless steel cookie scoop that I believe is equivalent to a tablespoon, but you can make these any size you want. Scoop out the dough onto your baking sheets (I fit 4 rows of 3 on mine) and bake for about 12 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Print out the template below to get started on your packaging. Use your printers settings to magnify or shrink the template to the size that you want. I played around with it and printed out a few different sizes so that some “presents” would hold one cookie while others could hold 2 or 3.

Once you’ve printed out the template, put a piece of parchment paper over it and trace the template onto the parchment. Then place the parchment with the tracing over top of the wrapping paper you want to use and cut them out (I did 2 parchments and 2 wrapping papers at a time). Then fold the parchment and the wrapping paper separately, put the parchment inside the wrapping paper and add the cookies. Fold up the “presents” and secure with a bow or a ribbon. Have fun with this part… switching up the wrapping paper, sizes of the packaging, the ribbons and the bows will really make these unique and fun!